“Next week, more than 50,000 people will descend upon Barcelona for the GSMA Mobile World Congress, the largest mobile event of the year. Attendees will hear from some of the biggest names in the business, from Vodafone and Telefonica to Verizon Wireless, Qualcomm, Microsoft and MySpace,” Tricia Duryee reports for mocoNews.

“My colleague Dianne See Morrison and I will be there from MocoNews to cover the events live,” Duryee reports. “But already, it’s clear that one topic will be in heavy rotation during the week: the move by handset-makers and carriers to ape the success of Apple and roll-out their own app stores.”

Duryee reports, “Samsung has already confirmed that it will make an app store announcement during the show, while Microsoft is also rumored to be unveiling its store, codenamed SkyMarket, at MWC. Today, Google got a jump on the news by announcing that it was opening up the Android Market to developers who want to charge for their applications. Other announcements are clearly on the horizon: RIM’s BlackBerry store is set to launch any day, and even Nokia s expected to make an app store announcement next week. It doesn’t stop with handset makers. There’s even hints that wireless carriers are ready to jump in to this arena.”

Duryee reports, “Even though Apple told us it won’t be attending MWC, its impact on the industry will be felt everywhere.”

Full article here.